Details of the Monday/ Tuesday
marathon meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of
Academic Staff Union of Universities have begun to emerge.
Sinnerchapel gathered via Punch Newpaper on Tuesday
evening that a key component of the agreement reached by the parties was that
the Federal Government would inject N1.1tn into public universities in the next
five years.
A reliable source, who made this
known, also hinted that the strike would be called off anytime next week.
He said the government team which
was led by President Goodluck Jonathan would release N220bn yearly into the
sector beginning from 2014.
The source added, “The meeting
should be the longest that we have ever had on this crisis but I can tell you
that both parties were frank all through the discussions.
“The parties also showed commitment
towards ending the crisis. The President in particular showed that he was
serious about ending the strike and that was why he offered to release over
N1tn to the universities in the next five years.
“The money will be released on a
yearly basis at N220bn per annum beginning from 2014. For the outgoing year,
the government will only release N100bn and this has been processed.”
He said that the government, in
order to show its commitment to a fresh pact, accepted that “the fund(N1.1tn)
should domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria”
“The money will be released on a
quarterly basis to the universities. So, there won’t be any problem about
funding the deal,” the source said.
The National Universities Commission
and the Trade Union Congress, according to him, will be the joint guarantors of
the agreement while the Minister of Education will be the implementation
officer.
The source also said that the
government agreed among other things, to revamp the public universities by
ensuring that all those issues that always led to strike were dealt with once
and for all.
It was learnt that the negotiating
team of ASUU led by Dr. Nassir Faggae met on Tuesday night to further
deliberate on the deal.
Though the details of the meeting
were not known as of 11.22pm on Tuesday, it was gathered that ASUU might call a
National Executive Council meeting on or before Saturday where the deal would
be tabled before all its branch executives.
Jonathan had while shaking hands
with Fagge after the marathon meeting in the Presidential Villa, Abuja said,
“My President, I hope it (strike) will end today(Tuesday). Our children have
suffered enough. We must find a solution.”
All those in attendance responded
with a loud “Amen.”
When greeting Omar, he said, “My
President with you around, there will be no problem; our agreement is signed,
sealed and delivered.”.
Faggae told State House
correspondent on his way out of the Villa, that his team would take back a
message to varsity teachers before a decision would be taken on the next line
of action.
“We had a lengthy meeting with Mr.
President, and we looked into how best to address the problem of university
education in this country. We now have a message from Mr. President that we are
going to take to our members and we are expecting that our members will respond
appropriately to his message,” he said.
Fagge added that since the message
was meant for members, he would not divulge it to the press.
When asked whether university teachers
would be called upon to return to the classrooms, he said that the decision was
left for them to take.
When further asked if he was
impressed by the President’s message, Faggae cautioned journalists against
putting words in his mouth, insisting that only ASUU members would determine
that.
The Minister of Labour, Chief Emeka
Wogu, who listened to Faggae’s encounter with journalists, later said progress
was made during the discussion.
He said, “We made progress. The
President of ASUU told you that they are going back with a message from the
Federal Government back to their members and the message is full of high
expectation and hope.”
When asked whether ASUU would call
off the strike, Wogu said that was why he described the message as full of
expectation.
“Our prayer is that they will come
back with positive outcome. They might even not come back to meet us. They
might take decision there that will meet your expectations “ he said.
He added that the offers made by the
government during the meeting were those that were in line with the contentious
2009 agreement.
He said since the issues that led to
the strike bordered on the 2009 agreement, the government did not go beyond the
pact.
The President was joined at the
meeting that started at 2.40pm on Monday by Vice-President Namadi Sambo;
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; the Secretary to the Government
of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim; the Supervising Minister of Education,
Nyesom Wike; Wogu among others.
Faggae led the union team which
included past presidents such as Prof. Abdulahi Sule-Kano, Prof. Dipo Fashina
and Prof. Festus Iyayi.
President of the Nigeria Labour
Congress, Abdulawahid Omar and his Trade Union Congress counterpart, Bobboi
Kaigama, also attended.
Other members of the delegation were
Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, Prof. Victor Osodeke, Prof. Suleiman Abdul, Dr. Victor
Igbum and Mr. Michael Odunmoraye.
The marathon meeting was the first
between ASUU and Jonathan since the strike started. The Presidency took over
the negotiations with ASUU on September 19 with Sambo in charge.
Source: The Punch
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